


The Most Dangerous of Creatures

by Nibelethe



Category: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (Movies)
Genre: And Newt Keeps One in His Suitcase, Gen, I Now Know What a Nundu Is, They are Horrifying, This Worries Me
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-02
Updated: 2017-04-02
Packaged: 2018-10-14 04:38:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,323
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10529118
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nibelethe/pseuds/Nibelethe
Summary: Ministry of Magic Creature Rating XXXXX: A Known Wizard Killer. Impossible to train or domesticate. The Nundu is a giant mammal similar to a leopard that is native to East Africa. It moves silently, despite its "gigantic" size, and is considered by some to be the most dangerous creature alive. The breath of the Nundu is toxic and filled with disease.Newt Scamander keeps one in his suitcase.She likes venison.





	

The infamous hunter known across the savannah as Death-by-Fangs-on-Silent-Paws, growled as yet another of the wretched bipeds threw a bolt of light at her. It felt like when she was a cub and had been kicked by an antelope. She snarled at the humiliation of being attacked by such a small creature and, for the hundredth time since waking up to find herself surrounded by wizards, she tried to inflate her throat. Before she could take a proper breath, the chains around her neck tightened again and she almost choked.

The nundu snarled at the pain in her throat, a torture far sharper than any of the lights her captors kept throwing at her. She would kill them for this. She would rip out their organs and leave their bodies strewn on the ground for the birds to scavenge. She would not even deign to eat them. She would breathe death upon them and watch their cubs die in agony. She would slaughter every human she came across for the rest of her life until there were none left to ever walk her lands again.

More chains suddenly wrapped around her paws and she collapsed to the ground. Despite herself, Death-by-Fangs-on-Silent-Paws tried to roar once more and the skin around her throat split. The wizards around her cheered as her blood started to drip from her wounds.

She ignored the pain and continued to growl. If the foul creatures that had caught her thought they were safe just because they had made her bleed then she would show them their mistake. Even if it killed her.

Before the cowardly things could start throwing another round of painful lights, a sound echoed across the savannah. It sounded almost like another nundu but Death-by-Fangs-on-Silent-Paws was not fooled. The roar was wrong, off in a strange way. It lacked an internal echo, as if a nundu was trying to roar with a closed throat and it was too close. If another of her kind was that near, she’d be able to smell them but the only creatures that Death-by-Fangs-on-Silent-Paws could smell were humans.

The false roar was enough to scare away the humans and one by one, they disappeared in a series of sharp pops. The nundu did not relax when they were gone. Whatever had caused that noise was still a threat and she was in no condition for a fight.

When yet another wizard stepped around a tree, Death-by-Fangs-on-Silent-Paws felt any hope in her heart die. At least if another nundu had killed her, she would have died knowing that her territory had been claimed and that her death would not be wasted. A human would slaughter her and leave her corpse for the birds to pick at.

_“Quietus,”_ muttered the wizard as he pointed his wand at his own throat and stepped towards her. His movements were odd, almost as if he was trying not to scare her and he carefully avoided eye contact. She’d go so far as to call this new human almost polite but that didn’t change the chains digging into her flesh or how dangerous she knew humans were.

“Oh darling,” cooed the new threat. “What have they done to you? Those horrible people hurting you like that. Let me see.”

Slowly the nundu felt the chains around her giving way and she almost thought her struggles had slackened them before she realised that they were loosening as the wizard pointed his wand at them. The nundu snarled, confused and angry as the wizard continued to unchain her.

“You’re beautiful, aren’t you? Yes, you are. Just beautiful. I’ve never seen a nundu this close before and you’re just gorgeous. That’s right, just relax as I get these chains off you. There you are, you’re safe now. I’m here darling.”

Against her will, the nundu could feel the tension draining from her body. Her struggle against the chains had exhausted her and she could feel the wizard’s magic twining around her, reassuring her that she was safe now, that there was nothing to fear. She wanted to fight it but as the chains continued to peel off her and the wizard made no threatening moves, she could feel herself starting to fall asleep.

“Would you like to come with me? I have a place you can heal, someplace safe where no one will ever hurt you again. Come on darling, just raise your paw for me. I know it hurts but you’re so brave. That’s it. You need a name. Something I can call you. How about Elaine? You look like an Elaine. What do you think? Yes, definitely Elaine.”

Death-by-Fangs-on-Silent-Paws closed her eyes and refused to look at the obviously insane human any longer. Elaine was a terrible name for a being of her immense power and strength but she wasn’t going to be around the pathetic excuse of an omnivore for long enough for it to matter. With the sensation of the last chain fading away, the nundu drifted off to sleep.

 

~~~~ @>-;--- ~~~~

 

Death-by-Fangs-on-Silent-Paws (whose name was definitely not Elaine, despite what some people kept insisting), was having a bad day. It had started with the realisation that the wizard-who-called-himself-Mummy (who was certainly _not_ her mother), was late with today’s food. Her bad day had continued with the realisation that she had become used to someone bringing her food like she was still a cub. 

She hadn’t killed anything in weeks.

As she paced back and forth on her hilltop, Death-by-Fangs-on-Silent-Paws could feel the strange walls of the den pressing in on her like chains. The wizard’s scent was everywhere, it lay under every rock and blade of grass, even the trees smelt like him at their base. She could feel his presence against every spine on her body, the press of it barely there at all but still inescapable. She snarled at the thought. She was Death-by-Fangs-on-Silent-Paws and she would not be chained.

Finally, the wizard entered the den. She could almost feel the joy his presence inspired in the other creatures in the den. The poor deluded fools that thought there could be any safety found in the presence of humans and for a moment, Death-by-Fangs-on-Silent-Paws considered breathing death over every creature in the den. She could kill them all and then this odd, confusing existence would be at an end.

Before she could decide to do so, the wizards scent reached her nose. He smelt… wrong. Over his normal scent was a fevered sickness, the sort she had encountered before when her mother had been teaching her how to breathe death long ago. Briefly, she wondered if she had done this to the wizard without meaning to but the sickness was too simple. It wasn’t the multi-layered illnesses that a nundu could inflict but it still wasn’t a good smell.

She sat back on her haunches and watched as the wizard circled the den, taking food to other creatures before finally approaching her hilltop. His movements were slower than normal, his steps louder and his skin looked both paler and unsettlingly moist. None of those seemed like good signs. She knew that when she breathed death, creatures died quickly but she didn’t know if a wizard could die of just one strain of illness.

“Good evening Elaine, I’m sorry tonight’s dinner is a tad late. I’m afraid I’m not quite at my best today,” he cooed as he set out her food in front of her. It was antelope, just as fresh and juicy as any she could catch herself but instead of eating it she just stared. Now that he was in front of her, she knew she didn’t want him to die. Not yet. Not until she knew why he kept bringing her food and cooing at her like she was a still a cub trying to catch shadows between her paws.

Mind made up, she pounced at him and caught the wizard firmly but gently under her paws. Carefully, so very carefully, she partially inflated her throat and held her breath as saliva pooled in her mouth. Then, when she was certain she had enough and before the wizard could escape, she collapsed her throat and started to lick him.

Almost immediately, he started making an odd chuffing noise and wriggled like a cub trying to escape a bath but she held firm and licked every inch of fur and skin she could find, making sure there was plenty of saliva around his nose so he would breathe it in. She remembered her mother doing this for her when she was young and she was certain it would work on him too.

As she worked, she could almost taste the fever fading under her tongue and she purred before finally allowing him to wriggle away.

“Well!” said the Wizard-Called-Mummy as he stood back up and tried to rearrange his detachable furs. “I’m glad _you’re_ in a good mood. Although I’ll have you know I did go for a bath already this morning and I’ll need another one after that. Really Elaine, did you have to get your tongue up my nose?”

She ignored him as she began to eat her food and after a few seconds, he picked up the food wheelbarrow and resumed his rounds. She watched out of the corner of her eye as he happily greeted every creature. Despite being covered in her saliva, she could still smell the love he emitted from every pore and as she watched him, she thought about names. Like all nundus, she had named herself when she’d first claimed her territory, but she had been called other things before that too.

Once, a very long time ago, when she’d been just a cub, she hadn’t been called anything as impressive as Death-by-Fangs-on-Silent-Paws. When her mother had still been teaching her how to hunt, she’d been called She-Who-Trips-Over-Her-Own-Paws. That had been an embarrassing name and even after she’d learnt how to walk silently, her mother had insisted on calling her that. She’d called her that right up to the day that Mother had told her to leave and find her own territory.

Before that, when she’d been so small that she could curl herself under Mother’s neck, back when her eyes had barely opened and Mother still held her close, she had been called something else. It hadn’t been a proper name. Not really. It was more of a chuff that Mother had used just for her.

Maybe ‘Elaine’ was like that. Not a proper name, but a sound just for her that meant she was loved.

If that was true, then maybe being Elaine wasn’t so bad. She stared at Wizard-Called-Mummy as he fed the oddly prancing creatures across from her. He still looked pale in the moonlight that lit that side of the den but he was already looking healthier than before.

She licked her paws and began to groom herself on the hilltop that he had created just for her. She could be Elaine. Just until he told her to leave.

 

~~~~ @>-;--- ~~~~

 

Things had been going wrong all week and Elaine was sick of it. Firstly, Mummy hadn’t been back to the den to do anything more than sleep and eat in ages and was spending all of his time outside instead of with them. Sometimes he did that but normally that was because he was stalking something new, maybe even someone that he’d bring home, this time he just smelled like other humans and sea water. Neither of those smells were things that Elaine was fond of.

Secondly, that annoying, overgrown, feathered menace kept making the sky loud in his corner of the den and it kept frightening the others. Elaine, of course, was too ferocious to be scared by such a thing but the noise did make her jump a time or two which meant she kept having to re-groom her spines and it was getting very annoying.

With all the fuss going on, some of the creatures had fled the den when the sky on Mummy’s side of the den had opened. Even one of the newly hatched little snakes that Mummy had been both happy and sad to find had flown off, thus proving Elaine’s long-stated belief that nothing that flew could be trusted.

Of course, the annoying, snack-sized, disappearing monkey had gone after the hatchling, so it and the others were probably safe but had Dougal given any thought to her? How was she meant to be appreciated as the beautiful creature she was if no one was around to scratch behind her ears? It was unacceptable. Absolutely unacceptable.

Worse still, it hadn’t been Mummy who’d opened the entrance to the den. He’d been there a little while later but someone else had been there first. For a moment, just a moment, Elaine thought something had happened to him. That just as there’d been a time Before Mummy, there was going to be a time After Mummy too, except worse because this time she’d know what life could be like.

He’d been fine of course. Mummy always was. 

Almost always.

Mummy and the stranger who’d opened the den had come down to feed them a little while later but both of them had gone straight back out to find the others. It’d been ages and Mummy still wasn’t back yet.

Elaine growled as she paced around her hilltop, not even bothering to snap at the diricawls as they flickered from one side of her hill to the other. What if Mummy was in trouble? Poachers could catch even the most amazing creatures, even she’d been caught once and put in chains. What if they’d caught Mummy and put him in a cage, how was she supposed to know if he needed her?

Without warning, the opening to the den cracked open slightly. It was just enough to hear the outside world and she could hear Mummy raising his voice in anger. She could smell the new human and the scent of the tricky little niffler that Mummy was currently yelling at, as normal. Then there was the sound of something crashing down and a faint scent of Mummy’s blood floated down.

Elaine roared in outrage, stretching out her claws as she prepared to leap out of the den. If someone was hurting Mummy, then they’d have to deal with her and if it was that niffler causing trouble again then she would deal with him too.

A second later the den clicked shut again, shutting out all sounds and smells. Elaine lay back down on her hilltop with a huff. Mummy had been hurt and she was just stuck down here.

This was all Frank’s fault, she knew it. 

 

~~~~ @>-;--- ~~~~

 

Elaine regally ignored the monochromatically coloured wizard as he stared at her. She did not blame him for being impressed. She was a magnificent creature, worthy of admiration and Mummy always made sure that her spines gleamed in the dusk of her hilltop. Although, he could have had the decency of feeding her if he was going to bask in her presence. 

“Mr Scamander, that is a nundu.”

“That’s very impressive, Mr Graves. Most people have never even heard of nundus’ outside of Eastern Africa. You know your creatures,” happily chirped Mummy as he unloaded the food wheelbarrow.

“Mr Scamander-”

“Oh, please Mr Graves, call me Newt.”

“The nundu.”

“Oh, her name’s Elaine. I rescued her from some villagers that were trying to kill her in Africa. She was in a terrible state but she’s recovered marvellously.”

“You rescued a _nundu_.”

“Amazing creatures. Did you know, they’re almost entirely resistant to hostile magic? It took almost a hundred Bantu wizards to stun her for long enough to put her in chains and even then, she woke up before they were ready.”

Elaine cocked her head as the new wizard started smelling like the mix of confusion, unfocused fear and that underlying start of love that was so common on new arrivals. She hadn’t noticed Mummy doing anything unusual but it was good to know that his own species found him just as confusing as everyone else did. Of course, that just meant that Mummy was special even among his own kind and everyone already knew that.

“You stopped almost a hundred wizards from killing a nundu.”

“Would you like to feed her?” The bucket containing Elaine’s food was shoved into the newcomer’s arms. “Just lay the meat in straight lines, Elaine likes to choose what she wants to eat first, and make sure you don’t make too many sudden movements, she might think you want to play and then it’ll take ages to get her settled down for dinner again. I’ll just go feed the kappas.”

“What? No! Mr Scamander, I didn’t – Newt!”

For a moment, it looked like the wizard was about to run after Mummy so Elaine lazily nudged her paw against his back. Following Mummy around was an entirely normal thing for new arrivals who hadn’t yet learned that he always came back, so Elaine wouldn’t hold that against him but the wizard was holding her food and he could chase Mummy _after_ she’d been fed.

The wizard’s smell of fear sharpened slightly at her touch so she purred for a moment to reassure him. It didn’t seem to do much to calm him down but when the newcomer slowly turned around instead of bolting, Elaine considered it a success.

“You’re a nundu.”

Elaine stared at him for a moment to acknowledge this fact before pointedly glancing at the bucket and flexing her claws. If this wizard didn’t do what Mummy had asked him to in the next few seconds, then she was going to grab her food and just endure the resulting scolding for scaring a new arrival.

“Right, food. Ok, just don’t… kill me. Mercy Lewis, I don’t want to survive Grindelwald only to be killed by a hungry nundu.”

Despite his muttering, the wizard carefully lay out her food in front of her and Elaine watched, feeling satisfied when everything was placed in a straight line. She was definitely getting the hang of dealing with new arrivals. 

“There is not a permit in the world that allows people to keep a nundu,” he commented as Elaine started eating. “Because there is no safe way to be around them. Nundus’ are vicious predators that kill everyone and spread disease with a single breath.”

Elaine flicked her ears to acknowledge his words but otherwise just kept eating. If the new arrival was going to make personal remarks like _that_ , then she definitely wasn’t going to share any of her food with him. Not that she would have anyway since tonight’s dinner was venison, but she might have thought about it if he’d been appropriately admiring. Obviously, it was asking too much for all humans to be like Mummy but a few compliments would have been nice.

“My life used to be sane,” said the wizard as Elaine finished the last of her meal and sat back on her haunches to consider him.

The new arrival had set out her meal in an appropriate manner and hadn’t flinched at all, so despite his lack of proper appreciation for her beauty, Elaine supposed she could give him a chance. Mummy was always insistent that everyone be nice to new arrivals, especially ones that had been recently injured, like this one. She could still smell the nutrition potions that Mummy gave to formerly caged creatures on the wizard’s skin and she remembered how it felt to be chained. She could afford to be generous.

Elaine lowered her head and gently butted the wizard’s chest until he took the hint to start scratching behind her ears.

“Just a giant cat, aren’t you? Well Elaine, I suppose I’m going to have to somehow write a permit for a nundu… and whatever _else_ is in here.”

She purred to reward him.

**Author's Note:**

> To be entirely honest, I don't think the most dangerous creature in this story is the nundu.
> 
> This story was written for the prompt http://fantasticbeasts-kinkmeme.dreamwidth.org/459.html?thread=355787#cmt355787


End file.
